Mind and Soul
by JayEyedWolf
Summary: A kinda-sorta AU. Mai Taniyama doesn't exist, but author 'Alicia Richards' doesn't know that. She thinks she IS her character, and the people around her fall into place in the story. A brief one-shot depicting her mind and the effect this has on her husband. (No offense is intended to anyone by that name nor the authors of GH, living or dead.) (T for one use of a curseword)


**EDIT: Crap I forgot the disclaimer. I DON'T OWN ANYBODY! Certainly not ghost hunt, or the characters in it, or the author! I only created these characters and their stories and stuck them with names... oh, and I created the plot alligator.**

**A/N: So, plot bunny. I don't even know anymore. It just suddenly jumped into my head how authors all make Mai do something special, which is of course understandable and perhaps even 'realistic' considering her canon life, but still. Some things push it a little bit (although I confess many of those stories I thoroughly enjoy and might even plan on writing eventually). Originally it was supposed to be Mai losing it for one reason or another and convincing herself she was special, but it developed into... well, this. You'll have to read to see what I mean! (There'll be another A/N at the end if you want to check that one out, too.)**

* * *

She was an angel.

No, no, no, that wasn't right… Ah!

She was a singer and skilled psychic, beautiful and loved by all for her wonderful personality.

Right?

She was great. She was always great. And special. Her life was always interesting. She was faaaaar from normal. Definitely. Gene was proof of that. Her abilities and Naru's original appearance in her life were, too.

"Miss Richards, please, take this medication…"

Their voices faded out as she slid, falling, tumbling, into a sewer. _Just like when I was at that case with Naru… _She didn't know what had happened, how it had happened. But Naru was gone. She looked around, searching, hunting, but he wasn't there. Where was he?

Now she was a writer, rubbing her forehead as she tried to put her emotions, her own history, into words that people would read and empathize with but always see as fiction.

Gene was back! He was alive, he'd been saved there was no more reason to fear.

"Miss Richards—! Someone bring in a sedative!"

Black. Pain on her arms but that was from a spirit. Oh, that's why she was dreaming, a spirit had dragged her down the stairs.

Wait, where was Naru? Gene? One of them was usually here, even if it was just a boring dream.

"Miss Richards, please, calm down. Can you hear me? …Miss Richards…"

The voices faded out again and she was suddenly standing in a field. She looked down at her twin boys with a smile—of course she had twin boys, they were Naru's kids after all, and of _course_ they looked only like him; oh except for their eyes, sometimes those shifted to brown from the blue—life was happy.

Suddenly, a crash and she jolted back into a gray, worn-down apartment, the weight of lonely years on her back. No, life wasn't happy. She tried to make it so for her children, but it never was. She was so _lonely_—why wasn't he _here?_

The monk the miko the medium the priest the tall dark Chinese man the college kid the friends everybody they were gone too what had happened—

"Miss Richards, I need you to pay attention. Can you do that for me? Mai Taniyama does not exist. Your name is Ali…"

The voice cut out abruptly and screams filled her ears, begging for it to stop for it to go back to normal _where was Naru why wasn't he here even Gene would be great right now and Lin and why had SPR stopped_

Black white grey red. A crash, and now orange-yellow light flooded her vision _she was in a coma, was that why she couldn't see them? Anybody?_

"There's not much more we can do… She gets more hysterical every day and we can't get through to her…"

_NO NONONONONONONONONONONO. _He was _gone_ it was all falling apart what was she supposed to do now his blood was crimson on her hands but she didn't see his body where did he _go_—

Now he was marrying another girl but she still couldn't _see_ him and her heart broke but she didn't know _why_ because wasn't he right, that night on the lake? She didn't know him but she had never seen it—

No, she didn't love either of the twins, it was Yasu or Lin or John or even Monk right

No nononononononononono. That was wrong she'd always loved _Naru_ and one day she'd prove that she did and that's how she would live again but _where was he_?

He was gone they were all gone why were they gone it didn't make _sense_—

And suddenly she was calm. She was sitting in a posh office, sipping tea, watching a flickering shadow as it—he—walked around her, radiating confusion. _Was that him_? But it couldn't be. Where was his face? Why was he so insubstantial?

She picked up a newspaper carefully and began reading, finding herself entranced as she read the headline: "Renowned Novelist Breaks Out of Asylum!"

Curious, she continued reading.

_Alicia Richards, famous author of the first seventeen books of the Haunting Chase series, among others, broke out of the asylum she checked herself into nine months ago. Her location is currently unknown; please keep an eye out for her as doctors report she's delusional and often violent. If you see this woman, please stay away and call the police immediately._

_(continued on pg 13)_

Next to the rather small article (for a front page story at least) was a photo of a woman with light red-brown hair and blue eyes.

"Who is this woman, do you know, Naru? She looks familiar for some reason. Oh, was she a client?" She asked, looking at the flickering shadow. To her confusion, it took an instant step back and froze. "Naru?"

There was a long silence before the shadow began speaking with difficulty. "Um… M-Mai, could you please go into my office and wait there for a few minutes?"

She tilted her head in confusion. "Are you possessed?"

"What?"

"You said please." She couldn't help but feel odd. Where had he gone, anyway? Where were the others? And why did he say please like it was natural? His tone was a bit weird, too. And where were the others? Weren't they glad she was back?

"Oh." There was a pause. "It's not really a request, Mai. Go wait in my office." Ah, there was the old Naru! Nodding cheerfully, she skipped into his office and began browsing the shelves.

_That's odd these are all law books. I thought Naru would have parapsychology or at least science books in here…_

In the main office a brown-haired man sat, bitterly weeping into his hands as he dialed three numbers into his phone.

_"Nine-nine-nine please state your emergency."_

"It's… It's Oliver Richards. Alicia… came to see me."

_"I… I understand. Can you please tell me your current location?"_

"My main offices. She's still here."

_"I see. We'll send a dispatch immediately, sir. Just hold on and keep her with you if you can."_

"Thank you…" Carefully hanging up the phone and placing it on the coffee table, he buried his face in his hands, tears continuing to slide silently down his cheeks.

Inside his personal office, his wife sat idly on his office chair, eyes wide and slightly manic as she smilingly looked around the office. She'd heard the conversation he'd had on the phone, he must be protecting her from that woman! That was why he'd told her to wait in his office and why his tone had been so strange. Although why he'd said his last name was Richards she didn't know. They were living in England now, married as Mrs. and Dr. Davis, and everybody knew it! What was there to hide?

Oliver choked back a sob as he looked again at the newspaper Alicia had held up to show him. She hadn't even recognized her own face, or name. She'd called him by the love interest of her book series' nickname.

_If this was what writing did to you, he'd be damned if he ever picked up a book or a pen again. _

_Her mind had taken her away from him, from everyone. Her soul was lost in abyss._

Ironic, he thought, that I'm being so poetic when I've sworn off author's works.

He stayed like that, merely thinking, until the heavily-armed police unit entered the room, and he pointed weakly at the door to his office, noting dully the straightjacket they carried. He heard her scream, saw her fighting them, calling out 'his' name as she struggled against the straightjacket until a doctor got her with a sedative. Her eyes slowly fluttered shut, her mouth forming the words _Naru, I love you _one more time.

Mind and soul, she'd sold them away because she loved her own books too much...

* * *

**A/N: As you can see, in the end it became an English woman who lost her mind and slid into her fantasy world, the one she wrote about in her books. **

**Brief recap/kinda-background-to-her-delusional-state: **

**Her husband took the role of Naru, and others around her fell into similar places. She realized she was having delusional flashes nine months or so prior these incidents, so in a moment of clarity she checked herself into a mental hospital, but it kept getting worse. When she had to be separated from her family, and direct visitation was no longer allowed (for their safety and hers), she slid into a depressed, delusional state where she couldn't 'find' them. Eventually she broke out, although her mind didn't really realize that. Her husband appeared as a shadow because he didn't look like her image of 'Naru'; thus to keep the illusion going her mind blacked his image out and gave her the feeling it was him. Originally, Oliver (yes, in this ff she took her husband's name to give it to her character)hoped she had regained her senses, but when she called him Naru he realized he was wrong and called the cops.**

**Obviously, this fanfiction isn't real and never happened to the actual author/manga-ka of Ghost Hunt, and I mean no disrespect to Fuyumi Ono-san or Shiho Inada-san. It's _just_ a plot bunny that I thought of. (More like plot alligator, actually, considering that this is rather... unhappy.)**

** The references to some rather popular fanfiction ideas (singer/writer/naru marrying somebody else/etc) was kind of her changing 'Mai's' story in her head based on the fanfiction she'd read of her own books, and because of the contradictions between them her 'reality' was unstable.**

**I dunno. Anyway, review if you want! It'd be a great help!**


End file.
